Logic Games 2010

Enjoying The Office a few months back (I’m a late adopter when it comes to popular T.V. shows; if it’s not available on Netflix for “Watch Instantly”, forget it), I became inspired. It was the episode where all the employees decide to hold an Olympic-style games when Michael and Dwight are out looking for a condo. I thought, “We have to do that.” So, the Logic Games idea was born with a handful of Logic Supply employees brainstorming creative ways we can recycle materials (this is Vermont, you know) and come up with a few well planned events everyone can get into. And, boy, did everyone really get into it! So much so that we had to squash some ideas for handmade trebuchets and sling-shots (we decided to make it more about brawn than brains for this event).

So, if you looking to throw a company-wide event and are looking for some ideas, here’s what we did (the names aren’t really novel, we spent all our energy designing the rules due to threats of “bending the rules”; good thing we had a former lawyer on the planning committee):

Event #1: Shipping Cart Relay

Event #2: Heat Pipe Toss

Event #3: Coffee Mug Relay

Event #4: GS-L08 Throw

Event #5: Hot Dog Eating Contest

With the exception of the Hot Dog Eating Contest, all the events had equal participation from every employee. And, none of the games required us to purchase gear, save for some spray paint, Tupperware containers, and hot dogs. We created five teams and gave each a color to work with. We split up the departments and requested each team come up with a name, identity, slogan to invoke fear in others, etc. The teams created were as follows:

Okay, now onto the details of the events: let’s start with the Shipping Cart Relay.

Shipping Cart Relay

Official Rules: Teams had to navigate a warehouse shipping cart loaded with boxes through a designated course made up of over-turned recycling bins. This was a timed event and points were awarded to the teams that completed the course the quickest. Each team had to load a shipping cart with 20 boxes of varying sizes. One player at a time pushed his/her team’s cart through the course being careful not to lose any boxes (the more boxes you have, the more points you can get).

This was a bit of a challenge. Boxes started flying off the cart immediately. Good strategy: stack em’ well.

Rockin' the primo box stack

Heat Pipe Toss

Official Rules: Each team lined up behind a foul line at a designated station. One player from each team had the chance to toss a heat pipe into four varying sized buckets. There were five stations in total all facing in the same direction and all configured the same.

Player’s feet could not cross over the line before, during, or after each toss. If any part of the player’s foot or major portion of the body crosses the line during a toss, that toss was not counted, and the player was not able to score any points for that toss. The player’s arm could cross the foul line, but not any parts of the person’s foot or feet or body.

There were two large buckets each worth 5 points, 1 medium bucket worth 10 points, and 1 small bucket worth 15 points. The buckets were spaced out so it was more difficult to score a lot of points with one toss.

It looks easier than it actually was

Coffee Mug Relay

At the office, we have a lot of stuff from Ikea, including coffee mugs that hold just enough liquid to make you really angry for more—we went for form over function here when choosing mugs. At the very least, they are pretty.

Official Rules: Each team was provided with coffee mugs filled to the top with colored water. Players had to navigate through the obstacle course, one by one, return to the start line and empty their water into a bigger pitcher. In order to make sure everyone moves faster than a snail’s pace, there was a time limit of three minutes for the event. To judge who won, we used a shipping scale to weigh the water.

Steady hands... (photo courtesy of Miko Hidaka)

GS-L08 Throw

That’s right, we threw a computer.

Official Rules: Each team player had the chance to “throw” a GS-L08. The player with the furthest throw won.

This event had the most restrictions because of the initial threats of building complex mechanisms to hurl the computer across the state of Vermont. Because we didn’t want to take out passing cars or have Homeland Security come after us (they are our neighbors), we limited the throw to bare hands. This didn’t limit the excitement, though; we saw one of the employees do a handspring before throwing the GS-L08!

Winner: Tyler Hughes, Technical Sales Associate

Hot Dog Eating Contest

Each team designated one of their teammates to a horrible fate.

Note: Don’t cook the hot dogs too far in advance. We prepared them before the festivities and then just covered them in tinfoil where they patiently sat for three hours waiting to be devoured. Imagine eating a deflated rubber balloon wrapped in chalk and covered in ketchup. That’s pretty much what the contestants had to stomach. Yum!

Official Rules: Whoever ate the most hot dogs in three (3) minutes won the contest.

Winner: Matt Steinke, Account Manager

Final Observations

All in all, this was a super fun event. And, it won’t be the first and final. The amount of creativity and enthusiasm witnessed during the week leading up to the event and then presented during the Games was really terrific.

Ideas for next year’s event? Or for a Logic Winter Games? Leave us some ideas in the comments section!